Traditional beliefs in modern society : the case of the Kapsiki blacksmiths of Mogode, Northern Cameroon

Abstract

This is an essay on the dynamics of the evolution of the Kapsiki blacksmiths group of Mogode. Among the Kapsiki, blacksmiths perform many trades and crafts calling for specialization as funeral, music, divination, magic and medicine, pottery, leatherwork, forging iron and casting brass crucial for people's life. But their position in the society is characterized by a big paradox between them and the others. They are perceived as a low stratum treated and considered by being dirty, dangerous and impure. The main concern of this essay is the investigation into this paradoxical position of the blacksmiths(rehe)and the power circulation among the Kapsiki.